Introduction

Consumer trust in Financial Services is at an all time low. In order to attract consumers' money, banks and other institutions must first rebuild trust in financial advice. The importance of trust varies across industry and region but for all FS players trust is a crucial element in retaining and attracting customers.

Scope of this research

• Using global consumer data from our FSCI survey this reports identifies the extent to which trust has been lost.
• The report analyses the causes of this shift & identifies strategies to rebuild trust & encourage customers to take professional financial advice.
• The report discusses what trust means in the context of financial advice & what it means for customer acquisition & retention, as well as performance
• A number of key trends have been highlighted that describe the interplay between trust, attitudes and behaviour in the wake of the credit crunch.

Research and analysis highlights

Financial advisors suffer the lowest level of trust in financial services. Advisors and brokers are the only financial institution where the proportion of consumers who distrust them exceeds the proportion who trust them.

Trust in financial advisors is correlated with trust in the banking industry. The lower the levels of trust in both primary bank and the banking industry are, the lower the degree of trust shown in financial advisors and brokers.

Consumers are less willing to buy financial products purely on the basis of price than pre-credit crunch. Consumers who may once have been focused on price to the exclusion of almost everything else are now placing a higher premium on stability and security.

Key reasons to purchase this research

• Access the results of Datamonitor's Global FS Consumer Insight survey, enabling you to understand drivers behind the loss of trust in your industry.
• Identify actionable strategies that can help encourage consumers to use banks and other financial providers for advice.